Terrible Tsarinas

that went against the tastes of her husband seemed salutary to

her; with Elizabeth, things were less clear. She sought savagely to

keep her free will, to obey only her own instinct. Moreover, the

early military successes bolstered her hopes. Showing more re-

solve than Apraxin, General Fermor seized Königsberg, besieged

Kustrin, and was making progress in Pomerania. However, he

was stopped outside of Zorndorf, in a battle that was so indeci-

sive that both camps proclaimed victory. Certainly, the French

victory in Crefeld, on the Rhine, by the count of Clermont, briefly

dampened the Empress’s optimism. But experience had taught

her that this kind of risk is inevitable in war and that it would be

disastrous for Russia to lay down its weapons at the first sign of

failure. Suspecting her allies of being less adamant than she in

their bellicose intentions, she even declared to the ambassador of

Austria, Count Esterhazy, that she would fight until the end, even

if she had to “sell all her diamonds and half her dresses.”

According to the reports that Elizabeth received from the

theater of operations, this patriotic disposition was shared by all

the soldiers, of high rank or low. In the palaces, on the other

hand, opinions were less certain. It was considered proper, in

some Russian circles associated with the embassies, to show a

certain independence of mind in this respect; this was considered

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having a “European” outlook. The mindset promulgated in foreign

capitals and bolstered by international alliances between great

families encouraged an elegant and tolerant lifestyle straddling

several borders, so that certain courtiers scoffed at those who only

wished for a solution that would be fundamentally Russian. First

among the partisans of Frederick II was, as always, the Grand

Duke Peter, who no longer hid his cards. He claimed to be com-

municating to the king of Prussia (through the intermediary of

England’s new ambassador to St. Petersburg, George Keith, who

had succeeded Williams) everything that the tsarina was saying

in her secret war councils. Elizabeth did not want to believe that

her nephew was receiving money as a price for his treason; but she

was informed that Keith had received from his minister, Pitt (who

also idolized the king of Prussia), instructions to encourage the

grand duke to use all his influence with the empress to spare Fre-

derick II from disaster.

Once upon a time, the Germanophiles could also count on

Catherine and Poniatowski to support them. But, after the open-

hearted conversation that she had had with her daughter-in-law,

Elizabeth felt sure that she had definitively defeated her. Folding

in on herself, retreating inward to simmer over her sentimental

sorrows, the young woman now spent her time only weeping and

dreaming. Since she had voluntarily removed herself from the

game board, she had lost any importance on the international

level. To ensure that she had been rendered harmless, Elizabeth

dispatched Stanislaw Poniatowski on a foreign mission. Her Maj-

esty then went one step further and, asking him to relinquish his

passport, let him know that henceforth his presence in St. Peters-

burg would be deemed undesirable.

After having disarmed her daughter-in-law, the Empress

thought that she had only to disarm one other adversary, who was

hateful in a different way: Frederick II. She was set against the

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Another Catherine!

king of Prussia not only because he opposed her personal political

views, but even more so because he had won over the heart of too

many Russians, who were blinded by his insolence and his gleam-

ing armor. Fortunately, Maria Theresa seemed as resolved as she

to destroy the Germanic hegemony, and Louis XV, at the urging of

Pompadour, it was said, was now engaging to reinforce the army

he had launched against Frederick II’s troops. On December 30,

1759, a third treaty of Versailles renewed the second and guaran-

teed to Austria the restitution of all the territories that had been

occupied during preceding campaigns. That should be enough,

thought Elizabeth, to revive the allies’ flagging energies.

In parallel to all this official business, she conducted (with

an almost youthful delight) a friendly correspondence with the

king of France. The letters between the two monarchs were writ-

ten by their respective secretaries, but the tsarina liked to think

that those from Louis XV were really dictated by him and that the

solicitude expressed in the letters was the sign of a genuine au-

tumnal flirtation. Elizabeth was suffering from open wounds on

her legs, and Louis XV stretched his compassion as far as to send

her his personal surgeon, Dr. Poissonier. Certainly, it was not his

skill with the scalpel and his ability to prescribe medications, but

his capacity to collect information and to weave intrigues that had

earned Poissonier the king’s high regard. Having been invested

with this secret mission, he was welcomed as an intelligence spe-